Volume 3 Number 2
Dear Alumni and Friends:
One year ago I wrote about “new beginnings” and the opportunities afforded by such actions. In a subsequent issue of Impact, I highlighted several important goals and directions for the School of Education. And while it seems like only yesterday, I am pleased to report outstanding progress in many areas, some of which will be mentioned here.
The School of Education continues to attract increasing numbers of mission-motivated students, and each year academic quality indicators continue to rise for both undergraduate and graduate students.
While the School already has an exceptional faculty, we added a half-dozen outstanding faculty members each of the last two years and will be seeking to hire an additional seven or eight during the coming year. Unique and critical to program quality, Baylor seeks to hire faculty who have a strong Christian commitment, who are scholars (or practitioner experts) in their fields, and who are committed to quality teaching. The increased emphasis and support for faculty scholarship has generated a rise in the number of grant proposals to and prominence of funding agencies.
With Baylor’s move to school-based development personnel and the work of Carole Menefee, our director of development, School alumni and friends increasingly are including the School of Education in their philanthropy priorities. I hope you will consider the School to be one of your gift priorities, too.
Perhaps the most observable progress has been program developments. Undergraduate programs in leadership studies and an Engaged Learning Group on Hispanic Families in Transition are at the heart of university-wide initiatives. Added to existing niche programs in school psychology and exercise nutrition are a renewed program emphasis on recreation leisure, a new school principal preparation program, and a proposal for a new doctoral program.
As you peruse this issue, I hope you will look beyond the stories we present to see the “impact” the School is having on our students and the lives of service they lead after leaving Baylor and the School of Education.
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